Hostage Situation
by Drive all night
Summary: A Hostage Situation unfolds involving one of their own. Personal relationships are tested & also some of those very relationships may just be what is needed to bring their colleague home. #Burzek
1. You can Bank on it

_**Let's see how this goes...I started this story way back in 2016 & would go back to it every now & then & work on it. Obviously things have changed from those heady days. Initially it was just after that debacle with Roman. Now it's changed a little & Burgess is obviously in Intelligence along with Al and Antonio still around & her & Adam are working at being friends at least. **_

_**Hopefully I have fixed up all the inconsistencies from the original version. **_

_**Also, unlike me I haven't finished writing this story yet...I usually have them finished before I post but I feel like being a rebel & living on teh edge so here we go.**_

The Foyer of the District was abuzz. It wasn't that there were many people there but those that were milling around were loud enough. Kim was late, Intelligence had been quiet lately and she had taken an extra overtime shift back on Patrol. She liked to do it occasionally just to 'keep her eye in'. She was also saving for a long overdue vacation so the overtime pay would come in handy. "Sorry I am late." She breathed out, still tucking her shirt in. "Half the streets were blocked this morning."

"Yeah. I heard. They've got some hostage thing going on down at the Citibank branch on Milwaukee." Her partner for the day was waiting for her and handed her a radio and flicked the keys around in his hand.

"Really?" Kim had had her IPod on in the car on the way in. That was unusual, she liked to get up to speed with the news in the morning as it generally gave her an indication of the day ahead. For some reason today she felt the need for music. It was just one of those days when she needed to zone out and music was good for that.

Platt was looking a little flustered. "I need you two to go relieve Garcia and Martinez on the perimeter."

"Really." Burgess blurted out before she realised what she had said. One of the benefits of coming down from Intelligence was that she usually didn't get the menial tasks that Patrol usually endured. Standing on the perimeter was considered Rookie work.

Her partner pushed her towards the door, he did his best to avoid getting on Platt's bad side. Joshua Jones or JJ as he liked to be called was a newly minted cop and as eager as they come. So far he seemed a good fit and Platt couldn't fault his enthusiasm, but he needed to dial it down some days. His desk sergeant didn't do 'happy' well.

"You done this much before? It's probably not the most exciting thing I guess but you never know what might happen right? Things can jump off anywhere." He was like an excited puppy.

"It's pretty rare that guarding the perimeter will be anything but boring. Just gawkers trying to get in and idiots pissed off because we are blocking them from getting to their favourite coffee shop." Kim did her best to temper his expectations. They could very well be in for a very long and boring shift.

Jones was leaning on the bonnet of the Patrol car lamenting that nothing was happening. Up until today he had been pretty busy and he was certainly enjoying being out of the Academy. The 21st district had a reputation of being full throttle, having the Intelligence Unit upstairs certainly livened things up. He had been excited when he found out he was going to be partnered up today with Burgess. She had been on Patrol up until a year ago and had worked her way upstairs. JJ had been told that she wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty.

JJ had tried to stay away from any of the gossip that swirled around the locker room with regards to the personal lives of his colleagues. One thing he didn't want was her asking about his personal life because that was a little confusing for him so he just avoided it altogether. Perhaps if he didn't ask too many questions about her then she wouldn't ask him about his life outside the job. Being a cop and gay was a tough road to plough and he wanted to prove himself as a good cop and not be the poster boy for diversity.

Suddenly the radio crackled into life on her shoulder. One hostage had been released, a woman and her baby. Then it went quiet again. "Well at least we might find out something?" Jones went back to leaning on the bonnet. "What are the chances of something happening now?"

"You will learn not to hope for too much action. It can go sideways in a way you could never think in the blink of an eye."

Commander Crowley mounted the steps of District 21 with some trepidation, beside her the SWAT commander. Platt peered over her glasses and nodded as Crowley pointed to the stairs. She had no idea why they suddenly needed Intelligence's help, but she was sure she would find out soon enough.

Only Voight and Al were upstairs. He had given the team the day off, they had worked twelve days straight on their last case. It had been long and relentless with each of them pulling 20 hour days at some point. They had wrapped it up late last night and only Al had trudged in that morning, he didn't really have much else going on these days. Work kept his mind of other things, or more to the point off losing Lexi. He knew Voight would be at his desk by 7, like he always was. Voight was also keeping one eye on the Hostage situation and it had piqued Al's interest too. It was out of their realm but that didn't stop them being interested in case something changed.

Al bought him in a coffee and they chatted about the case. Voight liked to get Al's opinion on how the team worked together when he wasn't around. It was always unfiltered and he trusted Al to give it to him straight. If he felt that someone wasn't pulling their weight Al would tell him.

Leaning back slightly in his chair when he heard the gate buzz he was surprised when Commander Crowley appeared at the top of stairs. Al nodded at the commander when he realised he wasn't required for this conversation and left them to it. He closed the door behind him as Crowley introduced Commander Wettering. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you Sgt Voight." Wettering shook his hand. "Your teams reputation is certainly well known."

He nodded. "What's this about?" Voight didn't like to be buttered up.

"As you are aware this hostage situation at the Citibank on Milwaukee has been going on for a few hours now and we didn't have much of a clue what was going on inside." Wettering started. "Now we do."

"What's this got to do with Intelligence? You need our help?"

"Perhaps."

Commander Crowley leant forward. "An hour ago they released two hostages. A mother and her young baby."

"Are they okay?"

"They are." Crowley and Wettering exchanged glances.

Voight was starting to get agitated. "Spit it out."

"We were interviewing the mother, getting details of what was going on, how many men inside. How many hostages." Wettering continued. "Anyway to cut a long story short, one of the hostages stuck his business card underneath infant's clothes when he held him for the mother for a few minutes." He pushed the card across the desk towards Voight. He picked it up and stared at it in disbelief. "Is Officer Ruzek here today?"

"No, the team has the day off, they wrapped up a case late last night."

"Can you think of any reason why someone other than Officer Ruzek would have this card."

"Plenty. He probably gives them out to any number of people."

Wettering then went on to describe the man according to the mother and it certainly matched Ruzek's description. Voight picked up his phone and called the number. It was switched off. "We've already sent a patrol around to his house, he's not home and his truck is parked in the area of the Bank. We believe that Officer Ruzek is one of the hostages, along with 12 other people and two offenders."

Voight ran his hands through his hair. "Are you kidding me?"

"Sadly not."

"How can we help?"

"You know him, how he works, how he thinks. Perhaps Intelligence can be of assistance as we try and work through this." Crowley had done her best to think of any reason to keep Voight and his team away from this but there was none. There was also no way that they would sit by while one of their own was in the firing line.

Crowley and Wettering left without saying a word to anyone on the way through. Voight eventually came out of his office and Al waited for his explanation. He could tell by the look on his face that it wasn't good. "Who was that guy?" Al asked.

"Wettering. From SWAT." He tapped his leg nervously. "That hostage situation they've got going on. They need our help. The woman who was released gave a description of one of the hostages who had slipped his business card beneath her baby's clothes." He held up the card. "It's Ruzek."

"What?" Al pulled off his beanie and ran his hands over his head, a habit of his when he was nervous.

"They are pretty confident that one of the hostages is Ruzek."


	2. Good Talk Al

Burgess rolled her neck around. They had been sitting in the patrol car for four hours and she was regretting taking the OT now, she'd rather be asleep like everyone else probably was. At least it was a quiet day, although that probably wasn't the greatest because it was hard to stay awake and alert. It would have been better to be run off her feet, at least the day would go quicker.

JJ was taking it all in, asking her about what she thought might be going on beyond the tape and drilling her about working in Intelligence and how she got up there. "SWAT would be there I'd imagine."

"Have you worked with them before?"

"Yeah, a few times, they are intense. You just do as you are told, and they will definitely tell you."

Kim jumped out of the car when she saw a black sedan pull up. "Sorry, you will need to turn bac…" the window rolled down to reveal Al. "Al? What brings you down here? What's this got to do with Intelligence?"

Al drummed his fingers nervously on the steering wheel and tried to avoid looking at Kim, he didn't want her to see anything in his expression. "Nothing really, Voight and I are just lending another set of eyes. Can you let me through?" Kim signalled to JJ to back up the car.

"Hope it's more interesting than sitting here?"

"I hope not." He looked a little distracted. "Kim…." He started to say something and then stopped. "…try to stay out of trouble." Al laughed a little and it sounded forced.

"Sure Al. Same to you. Although it's you and Voight, anything could happen right?"

"Right." He nodded and gave her his trademark smirk. He didn't necessarily agree with Voight's decision to keep things on the down low right now. They knew they had to keep the fact that there was a cop held hostage out of the media so the less people who knew about it the better although Intelligence was good at many things and keeping secrets was one of them. Voight's point was valid though and until they established who was involved and what the reason was they had to stay silent for Ruzek's sake, his life might depend on it. He argued that the team would not blow it but Voight decided that it was too early to bring them in when they weren't officially asked to help yet and there was no way he could keep them out of it if they knew.

"Let's just check it out and we can call them in if we need too."

"They'd want to know."

"They'd want to see Ruzek alive, that's all I care about right now." Al couldn't argue with that. Ruzek was like a son to him. He'd lost just about everything good in his life but Ruzek had remained his one constant. He had supported him in his own way when he lost Lexi. He never made a song and dance about it and doubted that anyone even knew what he did.

Once a week he would turn up at Al's house with a bottle of red and they'd just sit. Sometimes they'd talk, sometimes they'd just watch a movie but Al always hugged him before he left, the words weren't needed. Adam would listen to Al talk about Lexi growing up, the struggles they had as she started to become a teenager but it was the stories about reading her a book at night, sitting with her when she was sick, the joy on his face when he came home from an Undercover job that Adam loved hearing the most.

Al glanced in the rear view mirror as he drove away. Adam also talked about her.

He knew they weren't together anymore and that frustrated Adam, he didn't know what she wanted. They'd had a few moments when he thought they were on the right track again only for Kim to pull away from him. Al had been surprised at how long Adam had pined for her, he honestly thought he'd dust himself off and move on quickly. He'd moved from Wendy to Kim so quickly but he underestimated the depth of Adam's feelings for Kim's. It reminded him of his relationship with Meredith, he'd never been able to move on but Adam was too young for that and he'd told him so. "It's not that easy Al, I wish it was, I've tried, I can't shake her off. How'd you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Get over Meredith, move on?"

Al looked at the glass in his hand, he drank the last little bit and then topped it up again. "I still haven't."

"So?" Adam arched one eyebrow. "Good talk Al. Real good talk."

Right now though he wasn't sure where it all stood. Adam had mentioned that they'd had dinner recently but it was just happenstance rather than something that he'd planned but he enjoyed it and thought they were in a good place again but he was waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under him. It was unsettling him but Al was impressed that he never let it show in the bullpen or at a crime scene.

Pulling into the first spot he could find he found Voight talking to SWAT. He introduced Al to the Situation Commander as Ruzek's partner. "He knows him like the back of his hand."

"Good."

"What's going on?"

"It's pretty quiet at the moment. We know there are two of them but they are not negotiating right now; we've tried to communicate with them but what we'd like is for one of you guys to try talking to him and somehow get some information to Ruzek. Something he'd understand. We don't really know what's going on, what the lay of the land is."

"Haven't you got building plans?"

"We do, and the Banks are pretty spot on and bloody secure but unfortunately the surrounding buildings are years out of fucking date. The Landlord just let the tenants do whatever the hell they liked and didn't think to get updated plans. We got in the back where we thought there was an old access door that had been sheeted over because we thought it was probably a weak point that we could use but the new tenants have a built in bookcase installed. If we try to move it, it needs to be dismantled and it would probably make too much noise."

"So what's the plan?" Al just wanted to get to the point.

They went through it and both Voight and Al agreed it was worth a shot, the problem they had was that unless the Offender picked up the call it was wasn't going to work and for the next two hours there was not a peep from inside the building. They had no eyes and ears inside and no idea what was going on. It was a frustrating few hours.

Burgess was also well over it. They heard nothing, saw nothing and she was relieved when another Squad car rolled up to take over. "Platt says you can head back to District." They were informed. They still had three hours of shift to go so she wasn't expecting to head back just yet.

"Any news about what's going on in there?" She pointed in the general direction of the Bank.

"It's been radio silence. Seems weird."

"Yeah, nothing here either, no one is saying a word. Just your usual idiots wanting to get through because the detour is 'too far out of the way'. Have fun." She jumped in the car and tapped the steering wheel impatiently waiting for JJ to stop talking and get in. She wanted to get out of here before Platt changed her mind and had then on crossing guard duty or doing public safety talks at the local Nursing home.

Kim looked at Platt weirdly when she told Burgess to go home early. "What? Why?"

"What. Why What?" Platt repeated, peering over the top of her glasses. It was a look that Kim was familiar with and it was still terrifying. "I said you are done for the day Burgess. JJ here has some paperwork to do so you can go. Get some rest, you look tired."

"Oh okay, this is not weird, not at all but I'm gonna go before you change your mind." She pointed upstairs. "Anyone up there?"

"Nope." Platt just wanted Burgess out of here. The longer she hung around the more questions she would ask and it annoyed Platt no end that Burgess could almost read her as well as she could read her. The more she had to pretend that she didn't know that Ruzek was being held hostage the more likely that Burgess would figure out that something was going down. "Haven't seen anyone today."

"I saw Al out at the hostage situation."

"Yeah, Voight muttered something about being dragged out to cast an eye over the situation. I think they've both taken off home now. Like you should, before I find you something exciting to do like writing parking tickets at that food truck festival."

Burgess held up her hands in defeat. "I'm leaving. I need a shower and food and bed."

"See you tomorrow Burgess."


	3. Save Him

_**Just a short little Christmas treat...This chapter wasn't in the original plans but a comment in a review made me think...So hope it makes sense.**_

_**Hope you all have a safe and Merry Christmas with your family and friends. X**_

Voight and Al had been surprised at the small media scrum outside the house. They ignored all the questions as the pushed through the crowd and mounted the steps that led to the front door. One glare from Voight and the congregated media soon realised that they weren't getting anything from two surly old cops.

"I said no." A tall darked haired man answered their persistent knock on the door, he was clearly annoyed with the interruption. It obviously wasn't the first one of the day and nor would it be the last.

"I'm Sergeant Voight and this is Detective Olinsky from Chicago PD. We'd love to talk to Marianne for a few minutes, please. Officer Ruzek is part of my team."

"We've been through all this already today."

"We know, this isn't about the hostage situation, we need to talk to you about Officer Adam Ruzek. The man who helped with your wife's release." Voight could sense he was relenting and then he stepped back and let them in introducing himself as Geoff Buckley, Marianne's husband. "We are so happy that both your wife and daughter are safe and home with you." Voight shook his hand.

"Thanks to your Officer." Geoff led them through to the lounge. His whole demeanour had changed once he realised they were here about the man who saved his wife and daughter. He owed him everything and would do whatever to repay that favour. He wasn't sure what his wife could add that would help but they were better at understanding these things than he was.

"How's your wife doing?"

"Shaken obviously and that outside isn't helping." He waved his hand back towards the growing crowd outside. "They are like vultures."

"They are, we won't take up too much more of your time." Voight agreed. "I can organise some patrol to come and move them along?" It was the least they could do and Voight couldn't blame them for being pissed off with the crowd outside. The media were a necessarily evil some days but most of the time they did more harm than good and for the general public when they were caught up in the vortex they turned into scavengers all trying to outdo each other to get the scoop.

"Can you stop the phone calls too? We don't want to talk; we've been told not to talk to the media or anyone just yet."

"Good. While it's still a hostage situation the less people know the better. We don't know if the perpetrators have access to phones or the media or anything and if it gets out that there is a cop in there Adam is in very real danger." Voight really wanted to re-iterate that, who knew what would happen if they found out who Adam really was. "Not even family."

"They made that very clear." It had been made abundantly clear to them on more than one occasion. "We got that."

"Sorry." Voight offered. "We just really want everyone out safely, Adam included. We are worried about him; he means a lot to us."

Marianne eventually joined them and both Voight and Olinksy were surprised when she hugged them both. "Thank you, how's Adam? Is he okay? I didn't know he was a cop until after I got out and read the card. He was amazing." Her voice was shaking and they did feel bad for putting Marianne through this again but they needed to talk to her and try and get some idea on Adam's state of mind and what he was thinking. She had already been interviewed but not by people who understood Adam's mind as well as they did.

"He's a good cop." Voight nodded and helped Marianne sit down, taking the seat opposite her. "So he never said he was a cop? They don't know?"

"I don't think so. He never said and initially I thought he was pretty mean." Marianne smiled a little painfully. At the time she had been terrified of him but it was the way that he kept looking at her and smiling whenever they weren't being watched that made her start to wonder what his game was. "He kept nagging them to let me go because my _'screaming kid was doing his fucking head in and annoying everyone else.'_ I thought he was awful; everyone was being so nice and trying to help keep Bella quiet so not to upset anyone, particularly the two guys and he was there telling me to shut my kid up."

"Did they say why they were there, what they wanted?"

"No, no idea. They just came in and started waving their guns around." She gripped her husband's hand. They had been over this so many times already.

"Okay." Voight could sense that she'd had enough of reliving that and they'd got all that information from Wettering about their captors and their number one focus was getting Ruzek out alive. "Tell me about Ruzek… I mean Adam."

"He just sat and watched for a while. He didn't say anything but when Bella started crying he started."

"Doing what?"

"Complaining, getting in their ears, telling them to get me out of there, that Bella was annoying and was going to drive them nuts, that we didn't need a screaming kid. I thought maybe he was one of them but then they hit him, they smashed his face with their gun but he didn't stop. He demanded I give him Bella and I didn't want too."

"What made you change your mind?" Al hadn't said much to date.

"I thought he was going to hurt her but he managed to whisper to me that he was going to get me out of there and I had to trust him."

"And you did?"

"What choice did I have? I wanted to get out and I'd do anything. Bella is pretty wary of strangers right now and with all the stuff going on she just screamed louder and louder and they were getting annoyed. He handed her back to me. I felt the card under her shirt and he just shook his head slightly. I knew I had to pretend it wasn't there, I don't know why but I just did. Then he started back on them to let me go."

"He has a way about him, he can be monumentally annoying most of the time but there is just something in him that makes people trust him and believe in him." Al had seen it the very first day he dragged him out of the Academy. He'd spent far too much time on stake-outs with him and knew exactly how annoying he could be. Yet he'd trust him with his life.

"Is Adam badly hurt? Is anyone else hurt?"

"No." Marianne sobbed. "It's just him they are beating up on. He's taking it all. If they start in on someone else he kinda bugs them until they turn and take it out on him. I'm scared they are going to kill him. Can you get him out?"

"That's our plan."

"Adam saved us; you need to get him out. I want to hug him and thank him." Marianne pleaded with them both.

"And cook him a meal." Geoff teased her and Marianne smiled slightly.

"I'd cook him a meal every week for the rest of his life if that's what he wants."

Al scoffed. "Don't tell him that, you'll never get rid of him. He's a leech like that."

"I don't mind." Marianne slapped her husband's leg playfully. "I might even leave you for him."

Al shook his head. "Again, don't tell him that."

"When we get him out safely, along with everyone else I promise we'll bring him around for you to thank." Voight reached over and squeezed her hand. "He'll want to know you are okay too."

"You have to save him."


	4. Time is of the Essence

Kim's hand reluctantly reached for her phone as the alarm got louder and louder. She managed to knock it off onto the floor and the effort to move to pick it up was almost too much.

By the time she got home, picking up dinner on the way home and taking a fifteen minute shower she was done and crawled into bed and barely moved all night.

Squinting at the phone once she picked it up she groaned as she realised that she hadn't changed the time and it was only five thirty. She didn't need to be up for another hour. Yesterday morning she had gone for a run before work, today she was skipping it because she had a boxing class that evening.

Closing her eyes again she had no idea how long she had dozed off for before her phone rang. "Kevin?" it had only been twenty minutes.

"Burgess, you up?"

"Nope. Do I need to be?"

"Yep, Voight's called us in. I'll pick you up in ten."

"What's going on? Where are we going?" Usually an early morning call meant a crime scene.

"District."

"Huh?" She sat up and tried to stretch a little. Her muscles hadn't moved for a good nine hours and they were a little stiff. "What's it about?"

"No idea. Clocks ticking Burgess. I'm at Bullwinkle's now, get a wriggle on." Atwater often picked her up and always bought breakfast and coffee from Bullwinkle's. It was her favourite place and close to home and she didn't function without food and coffee.

Kev was waiting outside her apartment when she came down. She threw her bag in the back seat and gratefully accepted the coffee and popping the lid she inhaled the sweet aroma. "Thanks."

He pulled out into the traffic stream smoothly. "How was patrol yesterday?"

"So boring, we sat on the perimeter of that Bank Hostage thing. How's that going? I didn't check." Burgess moaned. "I remember when I thought patrol was exciting and the idea of sitting on a hostage situation was mildly amusing, what was I thinking?"

"No idea. Not on my radar." Kevin shrugged.

"What you get up too?"

"Slept, gym, housework. Nothing exciting."

"You know that sounds infinitely better."

"What about your partner?" Kim was still not used to Kevin's lackadaisical fapproach to driving, if he wasn't in a pursuit he barely looked like he knew what was going on around him.

"Good guy, keen as mustard and has that doe eyed look about him with regards to Intelligence."

Kevin scoffed. Platt still ribbed them about how wide eyed and naive they were. "Just what Voight wants, another annoying patrol officer keen to weasel his way in."

The District was quiet when they arrived which wasn't unusual. It wasn't changeover of shift yet, they were a little early and Halstead, Dawson and Al were already upstairs, along with Voight who was in his office. Grady arrived the same time they did and they waited for Voight with a tinge of excitement. There was always a bit of a buzz when they had something new to sink their teeth into. They were all the same, much better out doing something than sitting around doing paperwork.

Ann Grady had been detailed to Intelligence after Erin left, there was no doubting she was a good cop and she certainly had the belief in herself that was required on this job but she also rubbed people the wrong way, followed her own set of rules which changed constantly depending on whether it suited her needs or not and had a reputation of throwing people under buses. Voight had basically been told he had to take her when no one else wanted her. Rarely did Ann spend more than two years with any one Unit and while she tried to pass it off as she was gaining 'experience' Voight knew better and the rest of them were figuring it out pretty quickly.

"Right." He came out of his office.

"We gonna wait for Ruzek?" Atwater was surprised his buddy wasn't here already. He'd tried to call him but it went straight to voice mail.

"No, no need."

Kim had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. It was the way that Voight glanced quickly at Al. Nobody else seemed to catch it though. "Boss?" she asked.

"We have established that one of the hostages in the bank is Adam."

Kim leapt up from her desk and shook her head violently. "No, No. No."

Voight continued. "Adam is being held hostage along with at least ten other people. The two offenders have cut off communication with SWAT and the hostage negotiators at this point in time. We have sat back and let them handle it so far but we are out of time and I don't want to wait anymore so we need to come up with a plan to get in and get them out, but more critical than that we need to find a way to communicate with Adam."

"Why the hell have we waited this long?" Kim exploded.

"Burgess." Voight stared her down. "Get whatever it is out and then I need you to focus?"

"He could be dead by now. Why are we just finding out about this now? It's been almost twenty-four hours."

"It's not our case."

"But you were there yesterday, you knew and didn't tell us. We had a right to know."

"Well you know now. So enough." Voight pinched the bridge of his nose, had been up all night and in constant contact with Wettering. They had come to an understanding, Wettering would keep him in the loop and Voight would give them space to work. This morning they had decided that Intelligence could come up with a plan and they would look at it. Time was running out. "We have no reason to believe that any hostages have been hurt." They kept the part that they knew Adam had been beaten to themselves for now. "We are working on the assumption that these guys, who we don't know from a bar of soap doesn't know he's a cop. The woman they released yesterday didn't know he was a cop until after she left, he managed to get his business card inside her baby's clothes. We are still sticking with that."

"I want to talk to her."

"No, Burgess, Al and I spoke to her yesterday. Adam was calm and in control of the situation as best he could be." Voight didn't mess around. "You do not contact her, you hear me?"

"How exactly do we know that's still the case?" Halstead asked.

"We don't, but I am assuming that Ruzek isn't stupid enough to blow his cover and we are going to run with that."

"Adam won't be able to help himself." Grady sniggered and even Halstead cringed at the look Burgess gave her. "He's got a hair trigger. He'll do something stupid."

"Like when he rushed a house without waiting for back-up?" Kim muttered a little louder than she anticipated and everyone heard it. "Oh wait…that wasn't Adam."

"What?"

"He saved your ass last week." Kim was sick of this. She was sick of Adam being put down constantly especially from someone who barely knew him and hadn't actually had a conversation with him other than telling him what he was doing wrong. Sure they had their own issues but his Police work was never one of them. He was a good cop; he was becoming a great cop and Al had faith in him and so did Voight. The only person in this unit that didn't was Grady, someone who'd been here a hot minute.

"Sure…."

Voight held up his hand. "Okay, enough." This wasn't working, his team wasn't working like it should at the moment but he didn't have time to worry about that now but he would circle back to it when they finished his case and they had Ruzek back safe and sound.

He didn't care about seniority at a scene, whoever was there first had the lead. He trusted everyone to do their job and he knew that they all could and they could all keep everyone safe. Nothing had changed, everyone went home, every single day. Intelligence wasn't like any other unit and it was taking Grady longer to learn that than he hoped. He didn't care she had a detective badge, as far as he was concerned she was equal to everyone else in his Unit, no ifs or buts, she still had to earn her spot. He was in charge and every one fell in behind him, that's the way it had always worked.

He had two women on his team and he hoped they'd get on better than they did. Maybe it was time to read them the riot act?

"As I was saying, SWAT are giving us a go at coming up with a plan, so let's focus on that. We have ten people to get out safely and I intend to do just that, including Ruzek.

"Do we have the plans of the building?" Halstead was keen to get into it; he was also hoping to ease the obvious tension a little. If they were focussed then the rest would go by the by.

"We do, and the bank is spot on however the surrounding attached buildings are not quite up to scratch. SWAT have been taking a look and I'm just waiting for an update." Voight added. "Until we get that let's focus on how to communicate with Ruzek, with zero verbal or visual aids."

"Great. That's helpful." Grady was struggling to get up to speed with how Intelligence did things and she had the feeling that when one of their own was involved they could do anything. It was up to her to keep them in check, heaven knows they weren't capable of controlling themselves.

"It's what we have…so I want to hear some ideas." Voight clicked his fingers. "Tick Tock, time is of the essence."

Al leant over and patted Burgess on the knee as she leant against the desk. He spoke quietly and calmly so only she could hear. "Kim, he's okay. He's doing his job, let's do ours."


	5. Put some Sugar on it

First things first they had to let Adam know that Intelligence were onto it. He'd have faith in getting out of it if he knew they had his back. "How do we do that? It's not like we can send him a message." Grady put her feet up on the desk. "Send up smoke signals? Sky writing?"

Kim scratched her neck, a trait she often had when she was thinking. Kevin noticed it and held up his hand when Halstead went to speak. "What is it Burgess?"

"Have they sent them in food?

"What good would that do?" Voight shot Grady a bemused look, he really needed to have a word with her. He didn't care where ideas came from or how far-fetched or out of left field they were, if people were thinking then that was a good thing. As time went on they'd hone their skills so he was willing to listen to his rookies as much as his more senior detectives.

Burgess just smiled, cocked her head a little and continued on. "A bacon and maple sugar sandwich."

Halstead screwed up his nose. "That's disgusting."

"Yes, yes it is but he loves it, always has and if we send that he will know we are onto it, I guarantee it." Kim mocked him constantly about his penchant for it. Whenever he cooked bacon at home he always had maple sugar on it, he used to drown it in the stuff. Syrup wasn't good enough, it needed to be sugar.

"That's a bit of a stretch, how would we know if he got it." Grady just couldn't help herself.

"Because Burgess knows him, better than anyone. If he sees it he'll know." Voight interrupted. "Okay, that's one part of the plan so far, what next?"

"We can get a message to him, inside the wrapper."

"How? We can't write 'hang on Ruz, we are all over it." Atwater had a good point. If Ruzek didn't pick it up and someone else saw it, it could put everyone at risk.

"No…" Burgess tapped her finger to her temple. "…but if we pick a time that we are going to execute the plan, whatever it is we can let him know. Say it's 1600hrs, then we put 8 + 8 and a smiley face."

"Is this some secret code?" Grady scoffed.

She blushed. "Kinda, we used to send messages to each other…" Burgess waved her hand. Back when they were trying to keep their burgeoning relationship a secret that was how they organised a time to meet and even once they were out in the open they continued using that method. It was a thing and she knew he'd get it and it also gave her a buzz that he'd know it was from her. "Anyway, doesn't matter how or why now, all I know is that Adam will get it."

"Are you sure?" Grady was sceptical. "It seems risky."

"Then what do you suggest?" Burgess countered, she knew that Grady would have something to say about it, she didn't like being usurped. "Let us in on your great idea because all you are doing to shooting down everyone else. I guess we just go in guns blazing and hope like hell." Kevin put his hand on Kim's leg to steady her. If anyone knew how Ruzek's mind worked it was Kim, despite them being a mile apart right now that didn't diminish the connection and understanding they had about each other and how they worked and thought. "As I used to say to him being in Intelligence doesn't make you Intelligent." Kim mused.

At least letting Adam know at what time they planned to breach he could cause a distraction or ensure the hostages are away from the doors and windows. It wasn't fool proof and the risks were high but if they couldn't talk these guys down soon they'd have no choice. They had to go in and Voight preferred it if Intelligence had the plan, SWAT's plan was lots of cops and lots of bangs. They had to try and control it.

"Burgess, a moment?" Voight left them to plan the raid and reminded them that the clock was ticking. He beckoned her into his office and closed the door behind him. "Are you good to go?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure? I can't have you letting your emotions get in the way. You know this is still a risk." Voight would pull her so fast her head would spin if she thought she couldn't control herself. "And if you can't control them and if you can't control that out there…" he waved his hand out towards the bullpen and Kim knew what she was being told. "…then I will bench you."

"I know this is a risk, and I can do it. I promise Boss. He's our family first and foremost, everyone goes home, right? That's what you told me, that's what you've told us every single time."

"Right." He nodded and indicated she could go. Burgess took just a second to get her game face on and Voight noticed her change in demeanour as she turned to leave. "Just one thing…Intelligence doesn't make you Intelligent?" Burgess stopped with her hand on the doorknob and shot Voight a wry smile.

"Just a thing I used to say when he was being a little cocky. When I was on patrol, I'd remind him that just because he was upstairs didn't make him smarter than me."

"He is a little cocky." Voight chuckled.

Burgess tilted her head to the side. "Aren't we all?"

Grady followed Burgess when she headed to the locker room. Splashing some water on her face she didn't hear anyone come in behind her and jumped a little when she turned around. "You know I am just trying to help?"

"Sure." Burgess screwed up the paper towel and tossed it in the trash can. "We all are."

"I am worried you are too close to this. I know you've had issues with Ruzek and that he…"

Kim held up her hand. "I'm sorry, my issues with Ruzek are none of your business and that does not diminish the fact that I know how he thinks and works."

"They are my business if it affects the team and how you do your job." Grady didn't give up. "I think you should sit this one out. You've done your bit."

"Did you sleeping with your boss affect your ability to work?" Kim had heard the rumours, although they weren't exactly a secret and she usually didn't like throwing people's pasts in their faces, lord knows she had her own mistakes she wanted to move on from but she was stressed and angry and felt like she was being attacked for some unknown reason. Grady looked at her slack-jawed. "I'm not sitting anything out. My relationship with Ruzek doesn't affect the team and it never has." Kim bristled but she also had Voight's warning ringing in her ears. No way she wanted to be pulled from this case. "Ruzek needs our help, we need to get him out of there alive, that's my focus. It wouldn't matter if it was Halstead, Kev, Antonio or even you.." She emphasised the last part. "…same deal, we will do whatever it takes to get him out safely."

"I need to trust you to have my back. What if we go in and he's already dead or…."

Kim stepped close to Ann, getting all up in her face. "…Adam's alive. I know you've given up on him already but you don't know Adam, you don't know me or Atwater or anyone else out there." She waved her hand angrily towards the bullpen where everyone else was still knocking out a plan. "I know you think you've done it all and seen it all but this is Intelligence, it's not Gangs or Robbery Homicide or wherever else you've been. We all go home, every single time. I'm going to make sure Adam goes home and if you can't get on board then get out of my fucking way." Kim stepped around Ann and left her gaping.

Kim didn't have time for this. They had a job to do.

_**I promise there is a chapter coming up about what's going on with Ruzek, it's just taking me a while to find the groove and get in on paper so it makes some sense. Bear with me.**_


	6. Inside Looking Out

_**Well here it is, suffered a bit of writer's block with this one, went back and forth on it all day & finally decided it was about as good as it was going to get. Hope it's not too bad. :(**_

Adam scanned the bank. He took note of the doors and windows, counters and any other obstructions. He then took stock of the rest of the hostages. Three bank employees, and elderly couple, a middle aged couple, the woman with her baby and two other elderly women who seemed unrelated.

They weren't exactly calm but right now they were under control. It was the young male bank employee who unnerved him the most, he watched him for a while as he followed the two instigators around. While it wasn't unusual to follow their every move, hell he was doing the same there was just something off with him.

They'd called themselves Larry and Mo and Adam thought it was cute, and as dumb as fuck. They were amateurs but they had guns nonetheless and he needed to see how jumpy they were before he did anything.

So he watched.

The young bank guy was watching them and him and Adam tried to strike up a rapport with him, mainly with eye contact. At this stage nobody was speaking except Larry and Mo. Something about him unsettled him, something he couldn't put his finger on so he decided to stop trying to engage him.

He had to formulate a plan, he had to let people on the outside know he was here and he had to make sure that Larry and Mo didn't know he was a cop, that would be signing his death warrant. He zoned out for a few moments, his eyes open but he was trying to still his mind and think. What would Voight do? What would Al do?

Voight, he'd be motherfucking crazy and take out the two guys and that was not something Adam contemplated, not right now anyway. Give him another 24 or 48 hours of this then he might go Voight.

Al, he'd be more considered, he'd watch and think and move as slow as a snail. They really were chalk and cheese with regards to that. He wanted to rush in and do everything at once and a million miles an hour, like Voight but Al was teaching him slowly to be more like him and while it frustrated him at times and they had blown up at each other more times than he could count but in this moment he appreciated Al's approach to policing. He finally got it.

Suddenly the baby started crying and his focus came back and he started to formulate a plan. Larry and Mo didn't seem trigger happy, he was pretty sure they didn't want to fire their weapons. That didn't mean they wouldn't but at least it gave him a chance. Some small hope that they'd be able to get out of here alive.

"Wanna shut that kid up?" He growled at the mother. He felt awful when he saw her horrified look but he had to do it. It was strange, being mean to a mother and child went against everything he stood for, but getting everyone out had to take priority and even if she didn't know it, he was doing it for her and her baby. He hoped one day she'd know that, even if he didn't make it.

"Sorry." She held her baby closer and tried to soothe her.

"It's fucking annoying." From the corner of his eye he watched Larry and Mo. They exchanged a brief glance and he knew they'd picked up on something so he had to drive it home, but it was a long game he was playing.

"Why can't you shut it up. Stick your tit in its mouth or something." Internally he even cringed at that.

The mother pleaded with him. She was desperately trying not to gain any attention. She had no idea what these people would do to her baby and having someone bring attention to them was mortifying and terrified her. "Please stop."

"What? All kids like tits don't they?"

"Shut the fuck up." Larry warned him, taking a step closer to Adam who was sitting with his back to the wall and knees pulled up.

"What? The kids fucking annoying. I don't want to sit here listening to it screaming all day. Do you?"

"I said shut the fuck up."

Adam muttered under his breath and Larry didn't quite hear it and asked him to repeat it to which Adam just shrugged. That pissed him off and Mo decided to join in. "What the fuck you say?"

"Nothing." He shrugged again.

Everyone else gasped when Mo's handgun smashed into the side of Adam's face. He felt the blood trickle down his cheek almost immediately but did not flinch. "Fucking tough guy." Mo did it again, seemingly annoyed by his lack of response.

"You done?" He asked and Larry actually put hand on his partners arm to stop him hitting Adam again. "And now the kids fucking screaming even louder. How about you let them go? Do us all a fucking favour."

"How about you shut the fuck up?"

"Okay." Adam held up his hands in defeat. He wasn't giving up though. He was just catching his breath. He needed them to calm back down a little before he started again. It was a balance, pushing them to the edge and then pulling back and letting it calm down before pushing them again, each time a little further. The balance was stopping before the rope snapped.

Moving his position he sat near the elderly couple. "Are you okay?" The lady asked handing him a tissue from her bag to wipe away the blood that was trickling down his face. He assumed it looked bad and was glad he didn't have a mirror to check it out. He was a bit of a wuss like that, if he couldn't see how much he was hurt somehow it didn't hurt as much.

"Just a flesh wound." Adam smiled painfully; it did fucking hurt though and he had the feeling that it wasn't going to be the last beating he took. "I'll be fine. You okay?" He whispered and they both nodded. "I need you to just stay calm and quiet okay. Let me do the talking."

"Okay."

He sat for a while, not talking to the couple because he knew he was being watched and then he moved off again. He had been quietly talking to everyone else, not staying long and Larry and Mo didn't seem to mind. He ignored the other bank guy.

He did ask the middle aged couple to try and defend the mother when he went her again. "Not too much, just tell me to stop. Don't get up or involved though. Trust me."

He eventually made his way towards the woman with the baby. His whole demeanour changed though; his quiet reassuring behaviour was suddenly cold.

"Give me the kid." He demanded.

"No."

Adam's back was facing Larry and Mo so he smiled at her, his eyes pleading. His kind pleading eyes didn't match his words though. "Give me the fucking kid." and reluctantly the mother handed her over.

What he did horrified the mother, he scared the baby and made it scream. She jumped up and snatched her baby from his arms, as she did she felt something sticking into her baby's back and Adam saw her reaction and just shook his head. His eyes tried to convey everything that was too dangerous to say.

"All it does is fucking scream." He grunted. "It's doing my fucking head in, get it fucking out of here before I smother it."

"Leave her alone." The middle aged man stood up on cue but didn't approach Adam.

"Sit down tough guy." Adam barked at him.

It worked, another ten minutes of bitching and a kick in the nuts, which left Adam rolling on the floor in agony had worked. He clutched his balls, just to make sure they were still there and for a moment he did contemplate that he'd never have kids now, that's how bad it was. He felt like they were in his throat and the throbbing rattled though his entire body but at least it stopped him thinking about the pain in his head from the pistol whipping.

It was chaos and for a moment he was worried he'd pushed them too far. Everyone jumped up to help the mother and baby who was hysterical that Adam had threatened to smother the child. Nobody cared about him and that was his plan, they had to think that Adam was working alone, if they started to form groups or allegiances Larry and Mo would get suspicious that they were about to try something. Adam had to maintain his cover.

"Please let her go." One of the elderly couple begged and Larry agreed. It was out of control and they couldn't stand the noise. Despite being armed they were still outnumbered and had to keep control. Right now they didn't have it.

Mo took a few more minutes of negotiating to get him to agree and all the while the baby kept screaming. The middle aged man, who he learned was called Jack came to help Adam was shocked when he whispered to him to make sure the baby kept crying. "Don't let it stop."

Suddenly Larry appeared in front of the mother, "Get out." He grabbed her wallet though and reminded her that he knew where she lived if things went sideways. Adam smirked. He really was stupid, the only way he was leaving was in a body bag, he just didn't know it yet. That, and Adam had no idea how that was going to happen either, not yet.

All Adam needed was for them to get out, the mother knew about the card, she'd look at it and the cops that surrounded the building would soon know he was in there and without a doubt Intelligence would be called in. He had faith in them, they wouldn't let him down.

Jack played along, he suddenly got it. When the mother was released he realised what had been going on the entire time. He wasn't an asshole; he was trying to get people out. He was smart enough to know he had to play the game though and he hoped that Adam understood. "You're a fucking ass you know that." Jack sniped at him.

"Yep." Fifteen minutes on and he was still smarting from the boot to the balls. "Don't you fucking start nagging either I ain't helping your sorry ass."

"Trust me, I don't need your help." Jack winked at him and Adam got it. He had an ally, someone who would follow his lead.

Now he had no fucking idea what to do next but he knew he needed to hang low for a while, let the steam come out of the room. Although they had let the mother go Larry and Mo were at each other's throats. Bank guy, or Curly as Adam had named him was just watching them getting agitated with each other but saying and doing nothing. He hadn't done or said one thing when the shit was going on with the releasing of the two hostages. It was unnerving and he didn't know how he rolled yet or what he was up to. He decided he had to let the dust settle a bit and hope that another idea or opportunity would present itself.

It was his turn to watch and wait.


	7. TheyLied

It was tense ride over in the car. Kevin looked at his partner out of the corner of his eye. "You need to breath Burgess."

"I am breathing Kev."

"No, take a few deep breaths. We are going to get him out and then perhaps you two can have a conversation."

"We do talk Kevin."

"Really, about what? About all the shit you've put each other through? About how neither of you can move on." It was time to put it all out there, they had danced around each other, been miserable without each other and dragged him into the middle of it. They were his best friends and he was between a rock and a hard place because he loved them both and he was sick of them both being fucking idiots. "What do you talk about?"

"Back off Kevin. Not now, don't do this now."

"Then when would be a good time?"

Kim let her eyes slide closed for a brief moment and she did take a deep breath. "When we get him back."

Rather than answer he just squeezed her hand as she drummed her fingers on her leg and they drove in peace for a few minutes.

"Bacon and Maple sugar is nasty." Kevin eventually broke silence. "Nasty as all fuck."

"I know." Kim smiled, although at a push she would admit it wasn't too bad, she was growing to like it at one stage but hadn't had it for almost two years now. She just couldn't bring herself to do it nor could she throw out the jar of maple sugar sitting in her cupboard. It had made it's way up to the back out of sight but she knew it was there. "I mean in a sandwich?"

"He's got some weird ideas that's for sure. You think he'll get it?"

"He has to Kev, if he doesn't then what? We go in with all guns blazing?"

Kevin had to agree, in lieu of any other idea it was the one that they all felt had the best chance of succeeding. "I think Grady would like that?" He had noticed the tension for a while but never said anything. He had talked to Ruzek about it and in his usual non-committal way he just shrugged and muttered something about different strokes. He never really liked to give his opinion on someone, it usually got him in trouble. Like when he gave his opinion on Roman, that had gone down well as did his fist to his face at his going away party.

It certainly gave Roman something to remember his stint at the 21st. Nobody had really stopped him or cared one way or the other. Voight just shrugged it off, the only one that was pissed was Burgess but at that stage Ruzek didn't really care, he felt like he'd deserved it and told her as much. He was having none of her attitude at the time and told her he was sure she'd get over it as quick as she got over him. Apparently a bit of time and distance from the asshole did her the world of good and she did some soul searching, along with hearing some home truths from Al and Kevin. It took a while but eventually Kim at least realised that she played a bigger part in their demise than she wanted to believe. They talked about it once and that was it. It was done.

"Perhaps SWAT will be where she lands next? They love storming in…" Kim mocked disdainfully. "Like that's got any hope of succeeding. I guess she doesn't care about the collateral damage storming the bank would have. At least this way Ruzek knows when we are coming and he will make sure as many of those people are out of harms ways as possible. You know he will."

Even Kevin had been pissed when she announced that Ruzek would try and be a hero. "No, he'll be a cop. A damn good one." He reminded her for the umpteenth time.

"Grady really don't like Ruzek does she? I mean I get it, he's as annoying as all fuck as a person but he's a good cop." Atwater shrugged, they all knew this about Ruzek. "But he's my brother from another mother…"

"Maybe she tried to crack onto him and he knocked her back?" Burgess spat out bitterly. It was beneath her to be so catty but Grady had really rubbed her the wrong way today. She was annoyed at herself for letting it get to her. She had far more important things to worry about, like getting Adam out alive.

"Doesn't seem like the type she'd go for."

"Nope, not high enough ranking for her apparently."

"Wow Burgess, put those claws away." Atwater was taken aback. "Is this jealousy I hear? You jealous someone else might snap up your boy?"

"Just fucking drive Kevin, a little less like you are in a rally car race though."

Burgess and Atwater had no idea what Voight had to do to convince SWAT to let them deliver the food but sometimes it was better not to know. Currently they were heading to the local café who were preparing the food, they had stopped at a local grocery store to pick up some Maple Sugar as the café didn't have any and they didn't have time to wait around for them to track it down. Burgess knew where to get it, even if she hadn't bought it for years.

He gave Burgess a side-eye when she nervously grabbed the box of food "I think this will work, this part anyway." Kevin carried the box of water bottles to the car while Burgess held onto the food. She was hanging onto it for dear life, like she had Adam's whole existence in her hands. If this didn't work they had no idea what else to do.

"I hope so Kev."

"He's smarter than he looks or acts."

"I know." Burgess slid them into the back seat. "It's just, what if he doesn't pick up the sandwiches? What if the assholes who've got them hostage just hand them out and he misses out. He'll make sure everyone else eats before him."

"Slow down. Burgess, it's food, Ruze will be front of the queue."

"If he doesn't we are screwed."

"No it's just back to the drawing board. It will work." It wasn't that Kevin didn't have all these thoughts himself but two negative nellies wasn't going to help. He had to stay positive because there was no other option.

They had also secured a shirt hat from the Café and when they got to the scene Kim begged Voight to let her be the one to take the food in. She knew Adam she argued and could communicate with him, if he saw her he'd know Intelligence were there. Grady, of course had a different opinion. If anyone from Intelligence took the food in he'd know and at least if it wasn't Burgess he wouldn't blow his cover by giving away that he knew her.

"That's a stupid argument." Voight cut her down. "If he hasn't given away his cover yet he's certainly not stupid enough to do it because he sees a face he knows. How dumb do you think he is?"

"I'm just trying to be the voice of reason, you all seem to let your emotions get in the way of every decision regarding this case.."

Voight took a step towards her, forcing Grady to step back. "That's because having a heart makes you a good cop, you should try it sometime."

SWAT insisted that Kim wear a bullet proof vest under her shirt but she was worried they'd notice it and they had specifically asked for no cops and didn't want to do anything to make them angry or jeopardise the food getting through the door. First things first, they had to get it in there and then they could worry about the next steps.. Luckily she did as they asked her, through the doors, to lift up her shirt and turn around so they could make sure she had no wires or concealed weapons.

Adam smiled a little, the concealed weapon he got, the wire, meant fucking nothing to them but then again they were pretty stupid. Gun toting idiots. It was a nice view however for the brief few seconds he saw her.

Adam had been on edge ever since they agreed to let them deliver food. He had to appear like he wasn't excited about it or interested in what and how it was going to happen and also make sure he was in line of sight of the doors. One thing that nagged at him was that the mother that they released was probably only aware of Larry and Mo, she didn't know about Curly. He'd figured it out but was pretty sure no one else had except for Jack and it was only a few hours ago that he figured it out too. He'd asked Adam if there were three and he nodded.

While he was surprised when Kim appeared at the door he managed to keep his face dead calm. It was enough to know that Intelligence were on it. He expected nothing less. He had a few seconds to let her know about the third person and held three fingers down between his legs like a catcher. No sooner had Adam indicated three Curly stood in front of him. "What are you smirking at?"

"Starving Dude and she's hot. I guess I miss my girlfriend, she's a bit of a goer." Adam cocked his head. It was the first time that Curly had spoken to him. "Keen as mustard."

"You look like you'd fuck anything with a heartbeat."

"Yep." It was a strange conversation, after almost thirty hours of nothing he wanted to talk now?

Curly looked over his shoulder, still blocking Adam's view. "I guess, I mean she's got a mouth that I'd like to stick my poker in.."

Then she was gone and Adam decided he definitely wanted to see a bullet in this guy's head. He wouldn't mind sinking a boot into his gonads for good measure either.

It was all over in less than a minute.

Adam jumped up when they bought the food in and offered to hand it out. He doled out the sandwiches and water. He saw the one that was for him and made sure everyone got something to eat before he sat down to get into his. He was starving and needed to eat because he felt himself getting fuzzy and that wasn't what he needed right now. He was working on very little sleep so getting some food and water into him was a priority.

"What are you smiling at?" Mo snarled at him. He was definitely the least stable of the three. He wasn't the leader but obviously wanted to be.

"Sandwich is good, hit the spot."

"Great, now you'll stop fucking nagging? You are fucking annoying."

"Yep." He went and checked on a few of the elderly hostages, making sure they had eaten and drank the water. He was grateful for Jack and his wife Clary who were level headed and helped Adam keep everyone calm and out of the path of the Larry, Mo and Curly. Jack was a school principle and his wife Clary was a store manager.

Mo had tried to goad him into doing something rash but Adam was way too smart for him even when Mo was laying into him, he'd wait until Larry was asleep as he seemed to be the one most in control. Curly just watched Mo beat him and said nothing. Jack tried to intervene and copped a kick to the ribs for his trouble and Adam begged him to stay out of it.

He still had no idea how they were going to get out of here but he had to put faith in his team and CPD because that's all he had. At least he knew when it was happening, he had no idea what it was but expected it to involve a lot of bangs, people and smoke. It was SWATS MO, Intelligence weren't much better either. They were coming in all guns blazing, that was one thing he was sure of.

Checking the clock he knew they had three hours; three hours to navigate, keep everyone calm, including their captors. He needed to move people into safer locations without alerting anyone that something was happening. Jack and Clary seemed to clue onto something after the food had been delivered. "What?" Jack whispered. "What's happening?"

Larry, Mo and Curly were momentarily occupied discussing their next move, not that they made any attempt to keep their voices low.

Adam kept his voice low and quiet and spoke quickly. He'd sat down next to Jack while Clary was helping the elderly couple find a comfortable spot. "We need to get everyone away from the doors and windows and take shelter behind that counter but do it slowly and quietly."

"Why?"

"When I click my fingers you need to take shelter, okay?" Adam didn't look at them, he stared straight ahead and watched their three captors closely.

"What are you going to do?"

"Click of the fingers Jack, click of the fingers."

"You going to tell me who you are?" Adam had contemplated telling Jack who he was but couldn't risk it. He insisted that he was an Insurance Assessor, one of those assholes who always told you you were underinsured and wouldn't get back what you expected. Someone everyone hated.

"Your Fairy Godfather."

Bang on four o'clock Adam clicked his fingers and the doors burst open. Adam threw a paperweight he'd managed to find at the clock on the wall, causing it to shatter and it caught everyone by surprise. Then the first shot was fired and the screaming.

They lied, somewhere someone said you never hear the bullet but it was a lie. He remembered watching a TV show once that talked about it. That you never hear the bullet that got your name on it. They were constantly surrounded by gunfire, not daily or even weekly but they'd all heard enough of them in their day to know what it sounded like.

But they lied.

Kevin heard it, he heard the bullet from the moment it left the barrel of the gun until it thudded into flesh, it wasn't his bullet, it didn't come for him but it was the only bullet he heard in the chaos.

That was still ricocheting through his head when the body behind him hit the ground with a thud.


	8. Plan for the Best, Prepare for the Worst

"Burgess." Kevin spun around quickly, the sound of two gunshots ringing in his ears. "Burgess."

He saw the whites of her eyes just before the two bodies hit the floor. The thudding sound broke him out of his inertia and he propelled himself forward. "Burgess."

There had obviously been a struggle, it was carnage inside. One captor was dead, a bullet lodged in his centre mass and he was dead before he hit the floor. Ruzek was unconscious, knocked out cold while he was creating the diversion that allowed SWAT and Intelligence through the door.

"Get those paramedics in here." Al screamed into his radio. "Ten One. Two Officers down." He was on his knees beside Ruzek, allowing Dawson to handcuff Curly and drag him off Ruzek's crumpled body.

"Is he okay Al? Is he alive?" Dawson asked urgently as Al scrambled to feel a pulse and check him for any injuries.

There was an eerie stillness surrounding them now. People were speaking but the chaos had waned and the voices were deliberately kept low and calm to try and bring a sense of peace to the scene, which a few minutes ago was like a warzone. The hostages were either crying in agony, unhurt physically but emotionally distraught or were too stunned by what had just happened and what they now saw before them that they couldn't speak. Quickly they were ushered out of the building into the care of the waiting paramedics. Just beyond them were their families and it was torture for them waiting to see if their loved ones walk out alive. For a layman it seemed unfathomable that anyone could walk away from that scene unscathed.

"He's breathing, I can't see any wounds." Al ran his hands over his body and slid them underneath his prostrate form to check for blood. He was relieved that they came back out clean and he heard Dawson exhale loudly.

Kevin wasn't so lucky; he could feel Burgess's blood trickle through his fingers as he pressed his hands to her stomach. "Don't do this Kim, not now, not today."

He held his hand there until he had two paramedics beside him, even then he struggled to move. "I'm not letting go."

"We've got this." The paramedic had a thick gauze ready to go and pressed it into her wound and Kevin was relieved to hear her groan painfully. Surely that was a good sign. It was scoop and run and Kevin helped lift her onto the gurney and Voight told him to jump in back with her and keep him informed.

"What about Ruzek?"

"He's in the next Bus." Ruzek at the very least wasn't sporting any gunshot wounds but he did look like he'd been beaten severely and until he regained consciousness he was treated the same way, scooped up and transported to Med. They only had eyewitness reports of what went down. What they did know was he waited until the very last moment before he took out one of the captors. Rushing at them he knocked them into a wall and the resultant head clash, followed by Ruzek hitting the floor with Larry on top of him had knocked them both out stone cold.

The other hostages had little idea what had gone on, they were still in shock. The moment Ruzek took out Larry the doors, both front and back were breached and cops threw smoke bombs and the firing started.

With the help of Jack, Adam had managed to get a few people behind the bullet proof counter so they were at least protected. They couldn't get them all because Larry, Mo and Curly were getting suspicious. Jack and Clary stayed out, as did one of the bank tellers and obviously Adam but Jack was waiting for Adam to click his fingers and he'd drag his wife and whoever else he could with him behind the counter.

It was chaos, there was screaming and yelling, people coming in from all angles, but it was the gunshots that people could remember.

Burgess had followed SWAT, Halstead, Atwater and Dawson in. It was loud and a lot was going on. They thought they had two of them, the Intel they had told them they had two perpetrators.

As far as they were concerned Larry was taken care, both of them were out cold and Al had them covered. If Larry moved he eat a bullet. Mo was quickly gunned down, he stood in the middle of it, mouth agape and was easy pickings for the highly trained SWAT officer. Nobody accounted for the third person and as he came from behind the counter they all thought he was a hostage until he pulled his firearm and fired. One shot missed, lodging in the door frame and Burgess lunged at him trying to knock it out of his hands.

Burgess had an inkling that Adam thought there were three perps but he had barely indicated the three fingers between his legs like a catcher when someone stood in front of him and she couldn't hang around to make eye contact with him again. It was too risky.

She relayed her gut feel to SWAT and Voight but it wasn't much to go on. Voight trusted her gut but he wasn't in charge and SWAT dealt in facts, not feelings.

There were three and the third one fired the shot that bought Burgess down.

Adam had planned it all as meticulously as he could without knowing exactly what was going on. He had timed it to perfection. He had hoped that Intelligence would be involved, it sounded like something they would do and he knew they wouldn't sit back and watch and wait while he was in it up to his neck. So it was a relief to see Burgess and it gave him little glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel. He'd had moments when he felt that sense of dread, that he wouldn't get out of here alive but as long as everyone else did then he'd done his job. Except Larry, Mo and Curly, he wanted them as dead as he was going to be.

Then there were times when he knew that Intelligence wouldn't let him die. SWAT, he wasn't sure about them, they were a little less protective of him. Whatever happened though it was going to be a wild ride.

He had moved around all night, checking out the lay of the land, trying to get a read on Larry, Mo and Curly and making sure the rest of the hostages were calm. He came back and sat in direct line of sight of the glass doors.

Seeing Kim had calmed him a little and gave him a renewed sense of focus, it had waned at times the longer it dragged on but his heart started to beat a little quicker the closer it got to four o'clock. He'd got the message in the wrapper of his sandwich quickly. He looked at it and liked the familiarity and for just a moment he allowed himself to drift back, back when he was actually happy. If he was going out he wanted to least have a few happy thoughts before he died.

He'd seen the paperweight and managed to squirrel it away when they weren't looking, it was perfect timing that he launched it when Larry was right beneath it, it one swift motion he threw it, almost like a grenade and flung himself at Larry.

That was the last thing he remembered, although somewhere deep in his addled brain, he heard the shot too.


	9. You Did Good Kid

"You took your time." Adam muttered groggily.

Al leant forward and patted his chest. They were half way to Med by the time he started to regain consciousness. "Nice of you to join us." He had opened his eyes briefly as he was lifted onto the gurney and then again when they got into the Ambulance but hadn't spoken.

"I guess I'm not in Kansas anymore."

"Nope, but you slept through all the action."

"Ha." Adam's eyes slid closed for a few moments. "Is everyone okay? Did you get 'em out?"

"We got 'em all out." Al patted his chest again. "We got everybody who needed to make it out alive. You did good Kid."

"Good." Adam winced and tried to pull his mask off. "Larry, Mo and Curly?"

"Two dead, one under arrest." Al responded, lifting his mask back into place. "Larry, Mo and Curly. Is that what you called them?"

"No that's what they called each other, fucking idiots." He winced as he spoke. Every time he opened his eyes he felt like he was being stabbed with a red-hot poker.

Al decided, at this point he didn't need to know about Kim. He kept details to a minimum and judging by Adam's befuddled state he wouldn't really comprehend it anyway; he wasn't even sure if he knew Kim was there at all. By the time they got through the door Adam was out of it, he'd done his bit. Now he was drifting in and out, not exactly unconscious but he was dazed and confused and Al doubted he'd slept for the past 36 hours.

Voight was on a tear. It had been a long time since anyone had seen Voight as angry as he was. The waves were literally peeling off him and had they been inside it would have stripped paint off the walls. "Grady." He barked as he marched across the street to where the team were gathered. He didn't even care that everyone could hear him. "Did I miss the memo?"

"What memo?"

"The one that says that you are calling the shots with my team?" The words just dripped with rage and Halstead, Atwater and Dawson all took a step back. "You went to Wettering and told him to pull Burgess….for what fucking reason?"

"She was too close."

"I make that call…" he slapped his chest angrily. "Me…It's my team, my call. You had no right to go behind my back. I can tell you something for nothing, I'd rather put my hands in Burgess's life than yours. She would do anything, anything for this team. If you can't trust every single fucking person on here you need to pack up your desk."

"Sergeant…"

"I said pack up your desk. You are done."

He had been filthy when Wettering sought him out just before they were moving into position. He didn't need this distraction. "Voight, are you sure Burgess is good to go?"

"Yes. Why?"

"She's Ruzek's ex fiancé, I'm not sure she's the right person for the job. They've had issues."

Voight's blood boiled. "Burgess is precisely the person you want on that team. Who told you about her and Ruzek?"

"Doesn't matter."

"It does matter because I can tell you I have never, ever doubted either one of them to get the job done. Not Ruzek or Burgess. Not once." Voight fumed. "I bought her up to Intelligence despite their relationship ending because she's damn good cop who earned her spot and deserved it and she has never, ever let me down."

"Your team has some concerns and if it is going to be an issue I needed to know. I am not putting my team at risk or those hostages because of an ex-lovers spat."

"My team? My team? Bullshit…" Voight knew exactly who it was. Nobody had any issues with Ruzek and Burgess working together in the past two years. Only one thing had changed in all that time and that was the recent addition of a new team member. He'd seen the tension today in the bullpen and should have listened to his gut but he expected some level of professionalism. "I give you my word. Burgess stays." If anything he'd pull Grady before Burgess. Nobody told him how to run his team.

The fact that now Burgess was enroute to Med didn't help his mood.

"Boss…" Halstead tried to interrupt, he felt like he needed to be the voice of reason. He actually liked Grady, her no nonsense approach and cool detachment suited him down to the ground. Getting close to your partner was fraught with danger, he'd learned that the hard way and wasn't making that mistake again so having a partner who was cold as ice was unsettling at first but he'd come to understand her a little better and he trusted her to at least have his back on a job. He wasn't sure everyone else did though and he was smart enough to see that could be a problem. "I'm sure…"

"Did I ask you? Did you suddenly get a promotion?" Voight glared at him.

"No." he stepped back.

Voight turned his back on Grady, as far as he was concerned they were done. "Right, where are we at?"

Dawson took over, reading from his note book. "Three confirmed offenders, two are dead and the other one is in custody, but not talking at this stage. Everyone else is enroute to Med to be checked out, ten hostages and no injuries to report just shaken and dehydrated. Only injuries are Burgess and Ruzek."

"Right, let's go."

Al stayed with Ruzek. He had a severe concussion, dehydration, a fractured left cheekbone, black eye and needed stitches to close up a gash over his right eye. He was also sporting bruised ribs and various contusions on his legs and apparently, according to Adam _balls that were on fire_ where he had copped a couple of swift kicks.

"A mere flesh wound, barely a scratch." He tried to laugh but it hurt to even do that.

Al touched his forehead lightly. He hadn't left his side since they'd loaded him up. Apart from when he was in x-ray Al stayed with him. He ducked out briefly to get everyone up to speed and see what the news was on Burgess. "You need to sleep kid."

"I'll sleep when I am dead."

"Yeah well you are lucky you aren't dead."

"Maybe, I mean your ugly face is like being in hell, so maybe..."

"Kid, if you don't sleep I will smother you."

Adam closed his eyes and Al thought he'd finally given in. He watched him breath slowly and was surprised when he spoke without even opening his eyes. "Burgess? She's hurt isn't she?" He'd felt himself drifting and suddenly that shot rang through his head. He didn't want to open his eyes and see the answer written on Al's face so he squeezed them shut.

"Don't worry about that right now."

"Al, come on. I heard Atwater, I hoped I was dreaming but I can tell by the look on your face." Adam managed to get the courage to open his eyes and stared at Al. "What aren't you telling me? Why aren't you telling me?"

"She's in surgery. Bullet to the abdomen." Al reluctantly told him and saw his chest heave. "She's in good hands."

"Fuck."

Al rested his hand on his forehead again. "Hey, she's tough as nails that one. If anyone can beat this it's Burgess. I mean she puts up with you, that takes guts."

"Sure."

"Adam, just rest."

How the hell could he rest? Despite being exhausted, physically and emotionally he couldn't turn his mind off. Kim was hurt and that's all he could think about. At times he hated how much control she had over him, it was insane to let someone own him like she had and it was even more insane that he didn't fight for her when he had the chance and now she held all the aces. She pulled all the strings, all his heart strings and he vowed if he got out of that bank alive he'd tell her how he really felt. That they belonged together and that while it wouldn't be easy they had to try because not trying wasn't an option for him anymore.

He never expected her not to make it out.

"I can't Al. It's Kim, my Kim." His eyes flew open. "Can you get an update?"

"As soon as they know something we'll know."

Adam was having none of it though and begged Al to just check. When he came back he was wide awake. "Still in surgery, everyone is waiting upstairs. They will let me know the moment the Docs come out."

Painfully Adam tried to sit up, his head spun violently and he felt like he was going to spew, a wave of heat swarmed over him and he took a few deep breaths. "Hey, where you going?"

"Upstairs. I'm not lying here like some piece of shit while Kim's fucking dying."

"She's not dying Adam, come on. You need to take care of yourself. She'll be pissed when she wakes up and finds out you've gone and wrecked yourself after all her hard work to get you out."

"I need to be up there Al." He pleaded. "Please."


	10. Losing Patients

Seeing Al pushing Adam in a wheelchair was almost meme worthy and Halstead was quick to pull out his phone and snap a photo. He was allowed upstairs to wait on Burgess's surgery only if he agreed that once she was out he'd go back to his room. He had been admitted for observation for the night, much to his disgust. "I'm fine." He argued with the Doctor. "Al will keep an eye on me."

"Pfft." Al scoffed. "I'm not taking care of your sorry ass tonight. Tomorrow is soon enough."

"Way to have my back Al."

"Get in the bloody chair." Al reminded him he should be grateful they came looking for him, if it had just been him taken hostage they wouldn't have bothered and if he didn't stop whining he'd leave him lying in the bed and handcuff him.

"Wow, I'm the patient and you are the surly one. I saved lives Al, show some respect."

"Ruzek, get in the fucking chair."

"Speaking of saving lives, the lady with the baby. Are they okay?"

"They are, she thinks you are a hero. We spoke to her yesterday and she told us what you did."

"Neither her or her baby deserved to be there and I didn't want them getting more worked up because the baby was crying. I had no idea at that stage how dumb they were or how jumpy they were." Adam closed his eyes as the motion of the chair made him dizzy. Al drove a wheelchair like he drove a car; erratically. "I wish I coulda got more out."

Al rested his hand on his shoulder. "Everyone is safe, that's all that matters."

"Except Kim."

There was nothing Al could say, Kim had been in surgery a long time and he'd seen her on the floor, all the colour washed out of her, her eyes rolled back in her head. If he wasn't so terrified for her he'd tell Ruzek that she'd be okay. Instead Al didn't speak.

"You know, we are in a good place at the moment. Not a great place but a good place. I feel like we can do it, ya know but for that to happen she needs to be okay and I need to tell her how I feel, I need to stop being scared of telling her because I'm worried she'll say, '_Adam this isn't what I want. This is the best it can be.'_ That's bullshit Al."

"Then when she wakes up tell her that."

"I will."

Atwater jumped up out of his hard plastic chair as Al wheeled him in. "Hey Bro, it's good to see your face. As ugly as it is."

"Thanks Kev." They bumped hands. "Any news?"

"Not yet."

Voight, Halstead and Dawson all waited in line to greet him. It briefly took his mind off Kim, but only briefly. As soon as Atwater sat down beside him he leant over. "I wished you washed Kim's blood off you."

"Sorry man."

"Tell me Kev, is she going to be okay?" Adam spoke quietly. "You saw her, what's your gut say?"

"Burgess? She's been here before; she knows what to do."

"Right." He nodded. Nobody was really telling him anything and that was frustrating but right now he didn't have the energy to argue. His head was throbbing and he felt like he was a moment away from heaving his guts up all over the floor. "Kev, what happened?"

"We thought there were two, apparently there were three."

"I tried to warn her, I was worried she'd miss it."

"No, she saw it but all the intel from Marianne Bentley…" he noticed that Ruzek was looking perplexed. "…the woman with the baby. She said there were two. Burgess told them that you indicated three but without anything else to go on they had to work of the premise of two. She tried man and even when we went in we looked out of three but we weren't in charge and had no idea who it could possibly be. The third one got her."

"Fuck." He slapped his leg angrily. "I didn't know how else to tell her and I only got like 2 seconds. I tried to get them to let out this old couple, David and Julie but they refused. I think they figured out what I was doing."

"You're lucky you've still got a face man. That was risky dude."

"Yeah yeah, whatever it takes though right? Serve and Protect, I took an oath man." He closed his eyes. "What took you so long anyway?"

"Finding someone to make a bloody bacon and maple sugar sandwich."

"That was mint man….Burgess?"

"She knows you and how fucking weird you are."

Voight was on his feet the moment the swinging doors opened from the operating room. "Kim's in recovery. It took a little longer than we hoped, there was some bleeding that took a while to control but we've removed the bullet, it knicked her liver so we removed a small portion of it." Behind Voight was Adam, wheeled over by Atwater along with Al, Jay and Antonio.

"What does that mean?"

"It's perfectly fine, it will regenerate and a few weeks rest and a bit of desk duty and she'll be back to full duty in no time."

Voight shook his hand. "Thanks Doc."

"Now she'll be in recovery for a little while and ICU overnight at least so why don't you all come back tomorrow."

Nobody wanted to leave but they had no choice, they wouldn't be allowed in to see her tonight and the staff promised to call if there was any news. Adam begrudgingly was taken back to his room by Atwater.

"How you doin' anyway?"

"I'm fine Kev."

"You sure look like it."

"Well being beaten for nigh on twenty four hours does this to you." He grimaced as he got into bed. While he hated being here he had to admit that lying in the bed was far more comfortable than the chair and he was exhausted. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off he was starting to feel every kick, punch, pistol whip and stomp he'd received.

"Why'd you do it?" Kevin was content to sit with him for a while. He knew he was worried about Kim; he wouldn't really care about himself and if he was left to his own devices he'd stress out so Kevin would sit with him until he went to sleep. The Doctor was happy to give him something to help if he needed it and if he didn't sleep soon Kevin would insist he take it. He was fighting sleep at the moment.

"What choice did I have? I couldn't sit by and let them beat the crap out of anyone else. You would've done exactly the same thing."

"Probably."

"Not probably Kev, everyone would've done the same thing. I'm just glad it wasn't all for nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Everyone else got out yeah?"

"Yeah." Kev patted his leg. "Dude, you need to sleep."

"I know. I can't Kev." He closed his eyes momentarily waiting for the sleeping pill to kick in. Atwater had nagged him enough and truth be told he was exhausted. "Kim's gotta be okay."

"She's our girl and she's a fighter and you promised me that I'd be best man at your wedding, I am holding you to that."

"Yeah, promises mean jack shit." He mumbled finally feeling the effects of the pills and the past 36 hours catching up with him. "I made a promise…" he paused. "…she didn't care about that."

Atwater sat with him until he fell asleep. His two best buddies, the two people he trusted with his life were in hospital. This was the very definition of a shit day. At least they were both in the same place tonight and there was little chance of either of them getting into trouble.

Atwater let them know at the desk he was leaving and to keep an eye on him. If he caused trouble they had Atwater's permission to handcuff him to the bed.

They should've heeded Atwater's advice.

His nurse sighed and headed back to the desk. "I've lost my patient."


	11. In the Deep Dark

It took all his considerable charms to make it this far.

Reaching for her hand he stroked it gently, running his finger down over her knuckle and along her little finger. Her hand was warm and soft and unmarked and for that he was grateful.

"You know you shouldn't be here?"

He didn't even look at the voice. "Yes I should. Someone told me once, you shouldn't be alone or wake up alone."

"She's not waking up tonight."

Adam flicked his eyes to her face, it was still. "Doesn't matter, she'll know I am here." He breathed a sigh of relief to see that she had no physical injuries that he could see.

The nurse sighed slightly. "Let me get you a chair." She didn't know the story; she didn't know what had happened other than her patient was a cop and had been shot during a hostage resolution situation. The guy standing beside her bed she had no idea about but even though his face was bruised and battered there was just something there, the way he stood, the way he talked and the way he was looking at her.

While it was quiet she allowed him to stay. Adam thanked her for the chair. "What ward are you from?"

"Don't know."

"Come on, the deal is I'll let you sit here only if I can let your ward know where you are. They'll be looking for you I am sure."

He held up his arm to show her his wrist band, it had all his information on it. "Okay." He still didn't take his eyes off her. "Is she okay?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary. Everything is as expected."

"Great." Adam nodded. "And thanks."

"Behave." She warned him playfully. "Or I will send you back from where you came."

He just sat there, dozing occasionally and the nurse, who he now knew as Rosie worked around him and also checked his obs. For anyone else they wouldn't allow it but First responders deserved a bit of leeway and it wasn't taking long for the gossip train to work its way around the hospital and they were learning what Ruzek had done to protect the other hostages.

"So?" Rosie asked as she worked to empty the drain and catheter bag that Kim had insitu. "What's the story?"

"There is no story."

"Ha, you forget I've seen this all before. I get to read people." She chuckled. "I'm pretty good at it too."

"I think we are trying to get all our shit in one pile, we've got like three piles. Her pile, my pile and this little mound in the middle that is growing slowly, way too slowly for my liking. It's time to get the big assed shovel out and shove all our shit together." Adam rambled.

"Never heard love described like that before, that's a new one."

"Well we are different. I'm not sure love is the right word."

"I think you are lying to yourself."

"Nah, not me." His eyes closed slowly and he re-opened them suddenly as his head dipped.

Rosie noticed it. "Adam, you need to sleep too, you can't help her if you can barely function."

"I've barely functioned for two years." He muttered but he did agree, he was wrecked. He rested his head on the edge of her bed and looked anything but comfortable but he wasn't moving so Rosie gave him a pillow and covered him with a blanket and he never let go of her hand.

Every time someone came into the room though he woke, checked on her and then went back to sleep. That's where Voight found him. He had stopped by early on his way into work to see how they both were. When he found Adam's room empty he didn't even need to ask the nurses where he was. He touched Adam's shoulder lightly making him jump.

"How is she?"

"No change." He had stiffened up overnight and moved slowly. "That's good I guess. The best we can hope for."

"Did you get much sleep?"

"Yeah, all night."

"Bullshit Ruzek." Voight rubbed his shoulder. "Come on, let's get you back to your room. I'll sit with her for a bit."

"I want to stay."

"Hey, I'll stay, I can't be two officers down. I need you back sooner rather than later."

"I'm good to go Boss as soon as I get out of here."

"You've got the rest of the week off. Doctor's orders."

"But…" Adam just wanted to get back to work, that's how he dealt with things, he just got on with the next job that crossed their desks. Sitting around stewing on things didn't help anyone. It gave him too much time to think and thinking was his enemy at the moment.

"Okay, my orders then." Voight knew exactly where he was going to be all week anyway. He'd be useless to him in the Unit. "You'll be needed elsewhere." He inclined his head slightly in Burgess's direction.

Reluctantly Adam was taken back to his room. "Well, well, look who has returned." His nurse admonished him. "Have a nice night?"

"I did thank you."

"Right, into bed and pretend like you've been here all night. If my nurse manager finds out that you went walkabout I'll be fired."

"I promise to tell her how good a nurse you are." Adam did as he was told. He knew he was lucky to have gotten away with his vanishing act. Now he just wanted to be discharged so he could go back upstairs. "When's the Doc due?"

"Keen to get away from us?"

"Yes."

Voight stood by her bed and rubbed his thumb over her forehead before taking Ruzek's vacant seat. He wasn't surprised that he'd spent the night here, actually he would have been surprised if he hadn't. He'd observed them from afar, not really getting involved in their personal lives bar making sure it didn't affect their work and it never had. That's all he asked, but by sitting back and watching he saw it. It reminded him of Camille and the early years of the life they shared when things were simple and easy.

"You're Kim's family?" He was dragged out of his musings by the arrival of a team of Doctors and her nurse.

"Yep."

"Real family or work family?" He had noticed his badge and gun.

"What does it matter?"

"Legally."

"Real family then, if that helps."

The Doctor sighed; it didn't matter to these people which was surprising since they were the law but he'd long got used to the tight knit family units that First Responders shared. "It doesn't. So all I can tell you is that she's recovering well and I am happy with her progress."

"Great, thanks." Voight didn't need the details. "When will she be able to be back at work? I mean I need to know if I have to replace her for a while."

"A couple of weeks all going well. She can resume light duties in about two weeks, full duty in about six."

"Thanks Doc." He shook his hand. "Much appreciated." Voight knew how to play the game, although when it involved his team it wasn't really a game. This was about a serious as it could get. Two officers in hospital, not much was worse than that, except the obvious.

He resumed his position until he heard footsteps behind him. "How is she?"

"Still out of it." He didn't even need to turn around. He knew it was Platt. "But Doc says she's going to be fine."

"Can't keep a good woman down."

"Not this one anyway. Are you gonna stay? I need to get to the District and I want to check on Ruzek before I leave."

"Yeah, I'll stay." Out of her bag she pulled some breakfast, a few magazines, her phone and charger and put it next to her coffee. Trudy had come prepared for the day. "All set."

"Thanks Trudy." He squeezed her shoulder on the way out. "Call me if anything changes or let me know when she's awake."


	12. Never Wake Up Alone

It felt all too familiar. Waking up with Platt in her room. For a moment she thought she was back there and looked around expectantly. "It's just me Burgess." Platt saw it.

"Sarge."

"You gave us all a good workout. You need to stop getting shot."

"I'm trying." She lifted her arm, it felt heavy and the tubes attached annoyed her. "Is everyone okay?"

"Yes." Platt nervously straightened her sheets. Ever since she got the call that things hadn't gone as smoothly as they hoped she felt a sense of dread. She'd had plenty of her cops being hurt on the job, shot and even killed but they didn't affect her as much as this one did. Burgess had worn her down, won her over and she felt more like a mother than a boss. The lack of any real family in her young officer's life was surprising. Even when she was in court they never saw or heard from them. Kim said they'd been in contact but couldn't make it to Chicago. "You did good."

"Everyone?"

"He's okay." Kim's eyes fluttered closed and Platt saw the deep sigh. "He's okay."

Platt stepped out when the nurses came to give her a wash. "I heard you had a visitor last night? Stayed all night, they had to drag him out of here."

"Did I?"

"Lucky girl."

"Probably just one of my work colleagues. They get a little over protective sometimes. It's like a mission, no one should wake up alone is their motto. My cranky old Sarge once told them that." Kim nodded towards Platt who was pacing outside on her phone. It didn't particularly look like she was enjoying the conversation so she was probably going to come back in grumpy.

"She's a little sweet and sour that one."

"A little?" Kim scoffed and then winced as the pain rifled through her.

"So who was the guy?"

"I don't know. Kevin maybe. He's like my brother, he's definitely one who'd sit here all night."

"He was pretty banged up. Heard he was one of the hostages but managed to save everyone."

Kim gasped and the nurse smiled, in the wee small hours nurses were prone to gossip and good old fashioned fantasing about their patient's lives. These two certainly gave them something to talk about.

Platt didn't come back in immediately. She was clearly agitated on the phone. Kim settled back, even the effort of lying in bed having someone do all the work was exhausting. Usually she just wanted to get out of here but today she was quite happy to lie still, lying still didn't hurt.

Voight had stopped by Adam's room on his way out. "Sarge? How's Burgess?"

"Doing everything she should be and what you are not, she's resting comfortably. Platt is looking after her right now."

"Looking after her or annoying her?"

"Something like that." Voight smiled slightly. It was a rare sight. "How are you?"

"Itching to get out of here. I feel like I've been locked in a cage for days." Adam grimaced. "I think I'd prefer our cage to be honest."

"Careful what you wish for." Voight leant back in the chair and crossed his legs at the ankles and clasped his hand behind his head. It had been a long few days for everyone. "You ready to run through things with me?"

"Sure." Adam explained how he ended up in the situation he was in. He was out for an early run because they had a later start and because of that he didn't have either his badge or sidearm. He'd ducked in to grab some documents he needed to sign for a new share portfolio he was setting up. He needed to do something with his money. Before he had the chance Larry and Mo had locked the doors behind them. Curly was already in the bank, probably scouting it out. He kept a low profile and for the first few hours he had no idea he wasn't one of the hostages.

Once he worked out Larry and Mo he started working on getting people out and also a plan to let someone know he was in there. Even though he didn't have his badge he always had a business card in his shorts in case he needed to prove who he was. It was something that his Dad had taught him and he'd never forgotten. _'it might save your life or someone else's one day.'_

"I tried to let Burgess know that there was three of them, but it was seconds and I had no idea if she got the message."

"She did, but you know SWAT. We'd pissed them off so they were reluctant to listen."

"What you do?"

"Surprisingly it wasn't me, anyway not important." Voight waved his hand. Grady had pissed off Wettering and he took it out on the whole of Intelligence and tried to get them to back off. It wasn't happening, Voight didn't back down and it was a tenuous peace after that. "Then what happened?"

"Well I got the message that four o'clock was kick off so I tried to get people to move behind the counters. They were starting to get wary though so I had to talk to a couple who were helping and get them to stay out so it didn't look like I knew something was coming but they would dive for cover the moment I made a move."

"And?"

"At four I threw a paperweight at the clock, it kinda stunned everyone and that's all I remember. I heard screaming and yelling and gunfire and then I remember O's face in the back of the bus."

"I'm not sure if it was good police or dumb luck."

"I'd like to think column A but I'm pretty sure it was B." Adam coughed and gasped for air, suddenly feeling tightness in his chest. He shifted uncomfortably and Voight was up out of his chair.

"Is there anyone you want me to call? Your mother perhaps?" Platt asked. Burgess had drifted off to sleep and she had sat with her for the couple of hours while she rested. She had already called out today, she didn't need to be at work right now. Everyone else was busy trying to figure out who these idiots were.

"No, it's okay. I don't want to worry them."

"I think they are allowed to worry. You were shot remember."

"Yeah, I remember. They already hate that I'm a cop, if you call them they will be all over my ass to quit. They don't get it."

Platt cocked her head to the side. "Most don't." Her phone beeped in her hand and she looked at the message and sucked in a quick breath.

"What is it?"

"Nothing for you to worry your pretty little head about." Platt flicked her wrist and forced herself to smile.

"It's Adam isn't it?"


	13. Deck of Cards

"I can't breathe." Ruzek clutched his chest, his palms were sweating and his heart beat rapidly.

Voight slammed his hand onto the buzzer and barely waited two seconds before he hit it again. He rushed to the door and screamed down the hallway. "I need help in here, now."

The room filled quickly and he was pushed out. All he could see was people crowded around Adam and while they seemed calm he was anything but. A nurse ran out and he tried to get an answer but she blew him off. "Not now." And it made his anxiety levels skyrocket.

The more people that arrived the more he panicked and when they bought in a crash cart and closed the blinds he almost needed it himself.

"His lung collapsed." A Doctor finally came out, after removing his gown and gloves. "We've put in a chest tube and he's breathing more comfortably now. He's been sedated and we'll watch him closely over the next twenty-four hours. I'm sending him up for an x-ray shortly."

"But he was fine, up and about."

"Sometimes these things just happen, he'd taken a bit of a beating the past few days, any number of things could have caused it. It was lucky he was here, there was a lot of air in the wrong place. I don't expect any complications."

"We didn't expect this."

"True. That's all I can tell you."

"Thanks Doc." He sent Platt a message in case Burgess had insisted on coming down to see him, which he knew was highly likely once she was awake. They couldn't keep these two apart.

Kim felt her heart start to race and Platt noticed it on the monitor. "Hey, just slow down. Breath."

"Adam?"

"He's going to be okay, he's just had a bit of a setback."

"A setback. You said he was fine."

"And he is going to be fine." Platt stroked her forehead softly. "He's going to be okay and you two will stop this piss-farting around each other and sort your shit out, okay. That's an order from your Superior Officer."

"If only it was that easy."

"It is that easy, start with I'm sorry and go from there. He's waiting." Platt was done with them and there moping around. If they couldn't get it together by themselves then she was going to do it for them. It had been painful to watch them pining over each other for far too long.

"I can't, he'll never forgive me."

"Seriously Burgess. Get over yourself, open your eyes." Platt rolled her eyes. "We all make mistakes, you made a mistake, sure it was freaking huge but a mistake nonetheless, nobody died so suck it up and get on with it. He wasn't perfect either, no doubt he did dumb shit too but one of you has to make the first move, so pull yourself up and just do it."

"He's gotta live first."

"Oh, don't you worry about that, he'll be annoying us for many years to come yet. I feel it in my waters."

That made Kim laugh and it momentarily cheered her up but then reality hit again. "Can you check please?"

"Jesus, he was nagging us all day yesterday to check on you and now you are going to nag me all day aren't you?"

"Yes."

Trudy did send Voight a message and his reply barely satisfied Burgess. "He's resting comfortably after having a small procedure to repair some damage that had flared up. The Doctor is confident he'll be back annoying the crap out of all of us in no time flat."

"What damage?"

"Voight didn't say." As soon as Kim was asleep Platt fully intended to march down to his ward and demand answers. If Voight's response hadn't satisfied Kim it certainly hadn't satisfied Trudy either. He knew why he was vague though, to protect Kim and that worried her. What was he hiding? "If it was serious he'd tell us."

"Sure he would."

"Kim, you don't need to worry about that, I am sure Adam is fine, you need to worry about yourself and getting back on your feet."

"It's my fault?"

"How do you figure that?"

"If I hadn't been in here he wouldn't have spent all night sitting here worrying about me and that's obviously what's caused whatever it is that's wrong with him."

"That is a very long bow you are drawing. Adam was hurt before you even walked into that building."

"And if he'd got treatment rather than sit here he'd be fine."

"You don't know that." Trudy shook her head and then laughed. "You two, if you don't sort this out I am going to lock you in a room, bang your friggin' heads together and not let you out until you've either talked or screwed it out."

"Wow."

"Yes, and that's a friggin' order. I am so over this, it's tiring, I'm old, I don't need you making me more tired than I already am."

"He might not forgive me."

"Oh, for the love of all things holy. The guy is so in love with you he can't function. Get over yourself, drop the woe is me, apologise and get on with it."

Kevin arrived and went to see Kim first. Platt didn't even get the chance to warn him about Adam before Kim was onto him. "Have you seen Adam? Is he okay?"

"He's probably annoying the crap outta Voight, he might have smothered him, either him or the nurses."

"No, something happened to him. They won't tell me."

Kevin was stunned and looked to Platt who just shrugged. Voight had kept details sketchy under the assumption that Kim wouldn't worry as much. It didn't work. "Why didn't you call me?"

"I've been here with Burgess."

Kevin was on a mission and he was left speechless to see his mate not in the best of shapes. He noticed the tube coming out of his chest and the oxygen mask. It had taken him a while to track him down. He had been moved from his ward to a High Dependency unit.

He took over from Voight and promised to stay and Atwater did suggest he might want to let Burgess know because '_she's freaking out and Platt is at her wit's end and it's getting a little tense in there.'_

Kim was dozing when Voight came in. He stood by her bed and squeezed her hand. "Hey, how you doing?"

Her eyes shot open. "Adam?"

"He's doing okay? One of his lungs collapsed and they had to put in a tube to re-inflate it. He's sedated and resting more comfortably now."

"Is it because he was up here all night?"

"No. It's because he fought hard to save everyone in that building."

"Can I see him? I want to see him."

They got permission from her Doctor that if she went in a wheelchair she could spend ten minutes with him. The nurse bought in a chair and helped her into in and gave Platt strict instructions which she had every intention of following to a T.

Wheeling her into his room she got Kim as close to the side of the bed as possible and Platt and Atwater left them to it.

Kim reached for his hand. It felt warm as she laced her fingers through his and watched his bruised and battered face for any sign he knew she was there but got nothing.

When Platt came in to tell her that time was up she squeezed his hand and as she went to let go he tightened his grip.

He knew she was there. He just couldn't open his eyes, but he felt her and right now that was enough.


	14. Back where we started

"You are a sight for sore eyes." Despite his bruised face it still lit up like Christmas when she walked slowly into his room.

It had been two days since Adam had collapsed and he still had his chest tube but they were hopefully taking it out today. He hadn't seen Kim since it all happened, well not since he'd been coherent anyway. She had sat with him on the first day but he was so gacked out on meds that he just rambled shit and slept. He had no idea what he said but she was back so it couldn't have been all bad. Well that was his hope anyway.

"You look good."

"Really?" He laughed which made him cough and then he winced. He looked anything but good, he'd seen himself in the mirror, he looked like he'd been in a meat grinder and that's pretty much how he felt too.

"Sorry." Kim hustled to his side and quickly as she could. "Don't move."

"I'm so over this. I feel like I've been doing fuck all for days."

"Not quite, you are here because you did plenty."

"Yeah." He grimaced as he tried to shift his weight. His ass was getting sore. "How are you?"

"Getting there. Keen to go home."

"When do they think that will be?"

"Tomorrow hopefully. I tried to get them to let me stay until…."

"Until?"

"I need to keep an eye on you." Kim reached for his hand. "Left to your own devices you get up to all sorts of trouble."

"Go home Kim, I'll be fine. No need for both of us to the trapped in this hell hole with flouro lighting." Adam closed his eyes. He was still tired more often than not and the chest tube was uncomfortable at the best of times.

While they spent the day together they only really talked about what happened in the Bank. Kim asked him what he did, what he was thinking and if he would have done anything differently. She literally picked his brains and he eventually had to stop as he had a headache.

The one remaining Perp had given up very little information as to why it happened and even he didn't really now that the planned outcome was, it seemed he was just a little too stupid to realise what his buddy's had got him into.

Kim was discharged the next day, much to her annoyance. They laughed that they had never seen someone who seemed to hate being in her room so keen to actually stay another night. "You are free. Most people skip out of here."

"Yeah, but you know Adam..."

"He's in good hands. Go home and rest. We'll look after him."

"I know, it's not that. I let him go once and I don't want to do it again."

The nurse just smiled and patted her arm. "I have a feeling you'll be fine." It was the same nurse who had been looking after Adam the night he absconded. These two had kept the whole place entertained with their star crossed love story.

Adam only stayed another two days and when he finally got home and after his Dad fussed over him for a good half hour he was ready to settle down on his couch with the remote and a couple games cued up to watch and enjoy the peace and quiet for as long as he could. He groaned when he heard a knock on the door barely ten minutes into the first game, not that he was surprised, someone was always going to check up on him, they were annoying like that. It took him a while to get up and open the door, he wasn't walking all that quickly yet and he opened it and didn't say a word. Stepping back he let her in. "What are you doing here? How'd you get here? You can't drive yet."

"I caught on Uber." He took the bag of groceries from her hand. "Just some of your favourites."

Adam set them on the bench and watched as Kim started to unpack them. "What are you doing?"

"Unpacking your groceries."

"No, what are you really doing?" Adam exhaled. "Here? Why are you here?" Without a doubt he wanted this, he'd always wanted this but he needed to make sure it was right for him. He didn't want this to be a couple of weeks of back and forth for her then to turn around and say that now he was better she wasn't ready for anything more. He couldn't do that again. He had to put himself first right now.

He'd spent a lot of time last night thinking and time and distance gave him a bit of perspective and then he started to worry. It always happened when he was left on his own too long his mind wandered and catastrophised everything. Why wouldn't it? Nothing ever went right for him.

"Adam, I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For everything, I should have talked to you." Kim jumped straight in, they'd danced around this for long enough and never talked about it and instinctively she knew that this is what Adam wanted to talk about.

Adam just nodded slowly. "Yep and I shouldn't have let you go in the first place and by the time I worked that out it was too late." Kim knew that the biggest sticking point was Roman, she'd moved on so quickly but he didn't see that she didn't move on she was just trying to stop herself from hurting.

"They why did you wait."

"My ego was bruised. You've got no idea what that felt like. In front of everyone you dumped me, stopped talking to me, hooked up with Roman and let me find out in front of all of them. I hated you and then I couldn't go back because…."

"Because why?"

"Because I needed to work out if I trusted you or even wanted too."

"What does that mean?"

"What you think it means?" Adam sighed. "You never talked to me, I still don't really know what I did wrong? Was it the dinner with our folks?"

"Not just that, that pushed me over the edge."

Why didn't talk to me? And then in the blink of an eye you had moved on with that dickhead." Kim didn't really like the way Adam talked about Roman and he'd made it perfectly clear he wouldn't piss on him if he was on fire and she couldn't really blame him. It looked awful, what they did and Roman never gave Adam the time of day either and would remind her constantly that he didn't even bother to fight for her and because she was so crushed by that she ate it up. "What was I supposed to think? Did you sleep with him when we were together? Did you break up with me because you wanted to sleep with him?"

"I would never do that."

"How would I know? You didn't talk to me.." he repeated, his voice had taken on a little edge that neither of them liked. That had always bugged him. "… and I thought why should I beg and grovel to get you back when you walked away without one single fucking word or reason why." Adam couldn't keep the anger out of his voice. "I needed to reconcile all that and more."

"And have you?"

"Perhaps, what I do know is that I never stopped loving you. So I needed to decide what that means for me and if I could forgive you. If you'd slept with him when we were together, then I can tell you I can't go back." That was a non-negiotable for him. It was a line he would never cross. His Dad did it to his Mom and it ruined his childhood. Of all the things people could accuse him of being a cheater was not one of them. It chewed him up inside even that kiss they had, which Kim had instigated when he was still engaged to Wendy. He hated himself for letting that happen. He didn't want to become his Dad, not that part of his Dad anyway.

"I swear to you Adam, I never, it never crossed my mind. I loved you. I thought you didn't want to marry me."

"Well you were wrong."

"Was I?"

"Yes, and if you'd bothered to ask you would have known. Why did you keep asking me to put off the wedding? You did it twice?"

"I don't know."

"Yes you do, you do and if you don't you need to figure out why. Because what's the point of this if you don't know why you did it."

"I don't think you are going to like the reason why."

"Tell me." He growled.

"Roman kept telling me…."

He held up his hand. "Stop….just stop. You do realise why he did it don't you? He wanted to get you into bed and you fell for it hook, line and sinker. It's bullshit."

"I know." Kim squeezed her hands together tightly and shoved them between her thighs so he didn't see them shaking. "I was scared."

"Yep. Me too."

"Adam, I know I made mistakes."

Adam didn't appear to hear her or just chose to ignore it. "So, is that going to be an issue for you moving forward?"

"Is what?"

"The fact you and I are not anywhere close to being ready for marriage or even thinking about it again. We are a long way from there."

Kim was a little blindsided by his sharp turn. At this stage she hadn't thought about where they headed, she just wanted them to start again. "I don't know."

"Then you need to figure it out too."

"And what if it is? What if you not wanting to marry me is an issue?" Kim stared hard at him. If he was going to put demands on him then she was going to ask things of him too.

"Then you and I need to walk away now."

"No."

"No?"

"I am not walking away without I fight, I did that once and I regretted it ever since. I was hurt too you know, I was hurt that you didn't seem to care or want to fight for me. The only time I saw any fight from you was when you thought Roman was chasing me…"

"He was." Adam groaned. "Why can't you see that?"

"He wasn't…"

"God Kim, you are still doing it. You are still giving him a pass, why don't I get that same courtesy huh?" She really didn't know what to say. "He got in your head…" he tapped his temple. "…and he's still there."

Was he right? She had been so quick to blame Adam for everything.

Kim couldn't stop herself, she still wasn't ready to apportion the blame to all the right places. There were three people who wrecked their relationship and to date she only blamed one. "I chased him because you didn't seem to want to fight for me and that hurt, I was hurting…" Kim held up her hand when he was about to speak. "…let me finish. And then I saw your face, you supported me through that court case and I saw your face in that room and I knew then that I'd made the mistake. I broke you."

"Yeah, you did."

"You broke me too."

"I know."

"So? No, I am not walking away from you again but I think we need to take things slow."

"How slow?" Adam wanted to know. Yes, he knew it was going to take time but he wasn't going to crawl along at snail's pace and he also wasn't letting her set all the rules. Non-communication had killed them once so if this was going to work they both needed to say what they wanted.

"Let's just get through these next few weeks, you need to recover and I need to take it easy for a while, so let's use this time to set the foundation again."

"Okay."

"Okay?" Kim asked him again. "And Adam, I've always loved you." He just stared at her blankly. "Going back a couple of steps. You said 'what's the point of all this' what did you mean?"

"I mean what's the point of even talking about this if you and I aren't trying to get the same destination."

"And what's that destination."

"Us. I still want that." He wanted to be honest, he had to be. He'd hated where he'd been and how low he crashed. Life had been a struggle for him and he always battled the stigma of rejection. His mother rejected him for the longest time because he chose to live with his Dad. Wendy eventually rejected him and while he was relieved in the end it was still reinforcing his deep seeded fear and then Kim rejected him brutally and it just built up inside him until he felt like he was drowning. It took him a long time and a lot of soul searching to convince himself that he needed to trust her again because nothing else worked for him.

"Me too."

"That's not just some movement is it?" He smiled a little, that cheeky, half cocked grin that she loved.

"Only if you want it to be. I'd like to move around with you again."

Adam held out his hand and curled his fingers tightly around hers. "Hey, Kim, you wanna go on a date with me?"

"Yes."

_**I apologise, this didn't quite work out the way I hoped, but I didn't want to leave it unfinished. I hope it's semi decent, but this story kinda got away from me and I lost groove. Anyway I hope you 'enjoy' it.**_


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